I just don't see this as an alphabetic character. Why would a "P" have three curved legs or feet at its base? The double curves at the top also have another line extending out from the curve to the edge of the object at about the 1 o'clock position.
I can see it as a stylized image of a gather on the end of a blowpipe passing thru the gloryhole door....but it's a real stretch of imagination and doesn't quite fit the whole of the form either.
Does the "dot" next to the hole in the base, opposite "2002", look to have been made when it was signed? Any chance the egg shaped white dot in the center of the three "fingers" at the bottom of the straight line is a smeared signature cane?